Cal·i·co n.; pl. Calicoes
1. Plain white cloth made from cotton, but which receives distinctive names according to quality and use, as, super calicoes, shirting calicoes, unbleached calicoes, etc. [Eng.]
The importation of printed or stained colicoes appears to have been coeval with the establishment of the East India Company. --Beck (Draper's Dict. ).
2. Cotton cloth printed with a figured pattern.
Note: ☞ In the United States the term calico is applied only to the printed fabric.
Calico bass Zool., an edible, fresh-water fish (Pomoxys sparaides) of the rivers and lake of the Western United States (esp. of the Misissippi valley.), allied to the sunfishes, and so called from its variegated colors; -- called also calicoback, grass bass, strawberry bass, barfish, and bitterhead.
Calico printing, the art or process of impressing the figured patterns on calico.